Call of the Tour

I'm not usually much of a sports prognosticator. However, I think I did pretty well in my predictions for the recently completed Tour of California.



How did I do?

• Lance in the top five -- actually, he finished seventh, not too bad
• Levi to win the tour, with Lance's help -- yup
• Floyd, Tyler, and Ivan to do less than top performances -- Landis was 23rd (over 10 minutes back), Hamilton was 83rd out of 84th (over an hour back), and Basso failed to start the time trial while in 13th place
• Cavendish would win two or three stages -- he picked up two
• Boonen would win one stage -- he got second on the line in two stages
• Cancellara would win the prologue -- yup
• Lance would win the time trial -- nope, he was 14th; I missed that one!
• Lots of successful breakaways -- there were four in seven road stages, pretty good odds

I'd say that was a correct prediction in seven out of ten, pretty close on two, and completely wrong on one.

I hate to toot my own horn, but you have to admit I did pretty good on this one.

How's Lance going to to in the Giro? Ask me again in about two months.

Riding Back from the Sunset

Plenty of us are pretty excited about the Tour of California starting tomorrow. The big excitement, of course, is about Lance. But there appear to be so many other stories that Lance, while the center of media attention, may not be the biggest one.

He did look good in the Tour Down Under. But he is off a two and half year retirement. And I don't think this is exactly the type of race that suits his strengths. While I expect Lance to finish in the top five, I'll bet his real value is going to be in supporting his new teammate Levi, who won this race for the past two years. Can Levi make it three in a row? I'm not betting against him. However, if he has a really bad day (which he has been known for in the past), expect Lance to step right up and expect Levi to pull for him.

Floyd's back. Tyler's back. Ivan's back. All after serving doping suspensions. All of them are super athletes, but I don't expect any of them to stun us this soon after returning.

Who's going to win stages? Cavendish. Two or three of them. Take that to the bank. (In this economy, it won't be worth much, though.) Boonen will be mad, and I'll bet that will be worth a stage. Fabian is my big favorite for the prologue tomorrow. And I'll go ahead and pick Lance for the time trial, just because that will be his biggest chance to shine. Other than that, several stages look like great opportunities for successful attacks by someone you never heard of.

It will be fun!

Why can't we all just evolve?

Today is Charles Darwin's 200th birthday. My wife and I celebrated early by spending a week in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, in December. ... [more]

Let Him Have It

It is especially important for those of us who support Barack Obama to strongly criticize him when he screws up. He must know that it is not just the conservatives who will voice their disapproval, but also the very people he depends on to do his job and keep him in office.

When he nominates several people for important administration positions that seem to have serious ethical or competence problems in paying their own taxes, it means that he is not doing what he said he would. Yes, the country has many serious problems that need serious, immediate attention. But that doesn't mean that you should appoint just any old person to fill that job. With 350 million people in this country, there must be at least one for each of these positions that is knowledgeable, creative, capable, energetic, competent, and ethical. Plus, I'm guessing that most of us do a reasonable job at paying our taxes.

So, Mr. President, please consider this our version of tough love. We speak our minds not just when Republicans make mistakes, but when any elected official makes mistakes. We realize that you are under lots of pressure and still learning on the job, but I hope we elected a fast learner.

Remember, this hurts us much more than it hurts you!

No Room at the Inn

The cowboy sheriff of nearby Larimer County, Jim Alderden, has told the press that he is implementing a cap on county jail population. It seems his department can't afford all the people they are imprisoning, so they are considering releasing prisoners to stay within the cap.

I wonder if this means the good sheriff is going to stop his policy of jailing Boulder cyclists for the crime of not carrying ID? Or is going to set a drunk driver free so that a Boulder cyclist can be taught manners?

They Paved Paradise, Put up a Mixed-Use Development

Here's my latest column at the Daily Camera.

When I resumed running in 2005 after a year-long hiatus due to injury, I was shocked by what I saw on Foothills Trail, an old favorite. The open prairie had been covered with acres of development. ... [more]